The Key to IT– Your Performance Measurement IT Communication Plan

The 'admin burden' of performance measurement data collection and reporting can be reduced by using
enabling software
But successful transition to IT-based performance measurement requires more than a technical solution.

Essentially, people will be asked to change the way they report, access and manage performance information. Personnel are more likely to be motivated to come on-board if 1 - they can share in the vision of success, and 2 - they feel their opinions and views are taken into account. You create this level of acceptance by means of your performance measurement IT communication plan

In general, the goal of your communication plan is to create this climate of support and involvement, both from users directly involved with the system and subsequently, at a wider - i.e. departmental - level.

You also need to assure personnel through consistent messaging that the transition to a new system will be as painless as possible. You want to, as much as possible, anticipate and preempt the (perfectly natural) responses to change – e.g. 'is this gong to make my job harder'?, or 'if it isn't broken, why fix it'?

Good communications doesn't happen by accident; it's a result of planning and preparation to ensure that “everyone is on the same page” – that key issues have been grasped, and objectives reached. Here's how.

Crafting your Performance IT Measurement Communication Plan

Establish a mutual understanding of goals. Your communication plan needs to explain the big 'Why'? i.e Why are we doing this? Why are we investing the time and money and effort? And, (the sub-text) 'what's in it for me'?

Establish a shared language and terminology. Your communication plan should include a definition of terms and acronyms, and relate them to the work of your personnel.

Create feedback channels. Good project communication is two-way; make it easy for your stakeholders to provide their feedback by creating several communication channels, and always acknowledging their contributions.

Effective communications is intended to manage user expectations, provide a sense of being actively involved in the process, keep them well-informed, solicit their feedback and encourage the wide-spread use of the following roll-out of the performance measurement software. Build your communication plan with these objectives in mind.